Regata del Sol al Sol

Mac Smith

      Mac Smith, always a loner, began sailing at the age of 44 when, during the ‘70’s gas crisis gas became too expensive for his 31 foot Bertram sport fisherman. With no background in sailing, Mac’s first learning experiences were acquired from his crew of young Hobie-sailors as they participated in the Halifax River Yacht Club’s summer sailing program.

      With little more than a year’s experience, in 1977 Mac entered the inaugural Bermuda One-Two race with his Columbia 38, Sea Quest. This was a real adventure: A single-handed race starting at Newport, Rhode Island and finishing off St. David’s Island in Bermuda…. At that time is was a double-handed return race to Newport. The only navigational aids were a sextant and a radio direction-finder. Mac was lucky to finish at all. He was doubly lucky to finish second. In subsequent races, he twice finished first overall -- once by just one minute, boat-for-boat, in the 680-mile return leg to Newport. Another year he finished dead last when Quailo was battered by a whale and lost her steering.

                In 1980 Mac entered the OSTAR, a singlehanded Trans-Atlantic race and sailed Sea Quest to Plymouth, England. The legs from Florida to Bermuda and Bermuda to the Azores were sailed solo. A sailing buddy met Mac at Horta on the island of Faial in the Azores Archipelago for a double-handed final leg to Plymouth. The OSTAR was Mac's first serious open-ocean racing adventure. Mac lacked experience, he was overly aggressive and the boat was somewhat under-rigged.  What transpired were a series of rigging failures that led to his ultimate withdrawal as he approached the Canadian coast to the south of New Foundland.

                1984 brought another OSTAR opportunity and a series of adventures that began a few hundred yards from the dock in his home port of New Smyrna Beach, Florida. This time, sailing with his wife, Sonja, on his recently acquired Swan 441, Quailo, they found themselves with a transmission grinding itself to bits before they had even raised a sail. The big question: Take a tow back to the dock after two years of preparation? Or, hoist a sail and go for it? Mac and Sonja went for it. First stop: Bermuda. Second stop: The Azores, this time the Island of Flores. And many adventures later: Plymouth, England. Along the way they “enjoyed” the thrill of surfing for hours at twelve knots under bare poles as they encountered the seventy-knot winds of a frontal system. With Quailo, Mac had high hopes of winning his class. It wasn’t to be. Three days out, in choppy seas Quailo fell off a wave and a windward shroud snapped. He sailed back to Plymouth to make repairs and restarted a week behind the other boats. He finished. Not last, but well back in the fleet.

                His next big challenge was the race known in 1986, as the BOC Challenge, which was a single-handed ‘round the world race made up, primarily, of sponsored boats with professional skippers. To Ma, this was not a challenge to win. It was challenge enough to be a participant and, hopefully, a finisher. Mac did not finish. At approximately 45 degrees south latitude, more or less between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, Quailo pitch-poled in a severe storm. By the Grace of God, Mac survived and nursed his battered and engineless Quailo to Rio de Janeiro for repairs.

      Along the way, Mac was instrumental in organizing/founding several Ocean Racing events, the first being the Daytona/Bermuda Trans Atlantic. This, as the name implies, was a race from Daytona Beach, Florida to St. George, Bermuda and was sailed on a bi-annual basis that began in 1978. In 1998, he founded the Gulf-Streamer, a bi-annual race from Daytona Beach to Charleston, South Carolina. The race is still popular among both Florida and Carolina sailors.

     In the early 90’s, Mac, now in his 60’s, sailed Quailo, this time with an engine, to Panama… through the canal… along the equator and finally up to California where he was met by a sailing buddy that had participated with Mac in a number of double-handed races. (By this time in his life Mac was finding single-handed racing a little tough.) There, the two of them participated in the double-handed class of the Pacific Cup, a race from San Francisco to Hawaii.

     Back in Florida with a boat meant for ocean racing… eight-foot draft and a stick that would pass under fixed bridges only at low tide… and having a body too tired to pursue his passion for short-handed sailing, Mac donated Quailo to a school that works with troubled young people.

     Twilight, Mac’s present boat, is a Bob Perry designed heavy cruiser. She’s not much of a light-air performer. But she can hold her own in anything close to ten knots true wind and truly kicks butt when the breeze moves into the teens or more. This vessel’s first Regata del Sol al Sol competition was in 2002. That, and the following year were basically learning experiences. The fact is, according to Mac, every race is a learning experience. And each year Twilight knows a little better where to go and where not to go and how best to get there.

      Mac feels that sailing the Regata del Sol al Sol, (and doing well) involves a lot more than pointing the boat at Isla Mujeres and trimming sails. The race entry begins with a great deal of preparation that includes crew selection and crew training. In putting his crew together, Mac looks at talent but crew compatibility is foremost. “We race to win.”, and we want to have fun along the way.

     A lack of sleep may bring short tempers to the surface but a good crew will continue to work in harmony with the result that even the worst situations bring out the best in the guys and are most memorable when looking back.”“With the race underway, there are serious navigational considerations. Assigning and scheduling watches is key to consistent performance. Everyone has to be fed and get a reasonable amount of sleep. Putting it all together requires a serious effort.”

      To Mac, racing his sailboat is still a challenge. It’s fun. And, at eighty-one, he’s hoping his tired body is good for one more race and that his crew mates can put up with his grouchy persona one more time.